Conventional Raman spectrometers were often large industrial sized instruments. Developments in the fields of imaging and laser technologies have allowed Raman spectrometers to dramatically shrink in size, allowing for benchtop and even hand-held portable analytical equipment that can provide highly detailed analytical information to a user in the field. Despite these advances, the Raman spectrometer-to-sample interface of a conventional benchtop system is exposed to the external environment. As such, in an effort to accommodate safe and effective use of the Raman instrument, these conventional instruments are often used in special rooms to reduce ambient light, or they are placed in fume hoods to remove noxious vapors and fumes emanating from the sample. Often, an operator of a conventional Raman instrument uses laser-safe eye protection to shield his/her eyes from harmful light that may emanate from the spectrometer-to-sample interface. In some conventional systems, primitive enclosures in the form of a rudimentary lid or box can be used to block light transmission, which may help protect an operator's eyes and/or block ambient light.
However, these primitive solutions typically introduce challenges, such as, challenges in positioning a sample for analysis in a convenient manner, difficulty in automating sequential sampling, a lack of environmental control, and the like. For instance, once an operator of a conventional system blocks the spectrometer-to-sample interface with a primitive enclosure, there is typically no way of confirming the location of the sample has not changed. Furthermore, there is generally no way of sampling noxious samples short of placing the entire Raman instrument into a fume hood, and there is generally no way of regulating the environment of the sample without subjecting the entire Raman instrument to similar conditions by regulating the environment of the room in which the Raman instrument is located. The disclosure made herein is presented with respect to these and other considerations.